Tim Thorp | Web Guy

1979 Honda Civic Hatchback

Bought it when I was 14 years old for $100. It had been totalled in an accident, but I pried the fender off the back tire with a cro-bar and replaced the rear light that was broken. Stick shift with an 1,169 cc engine. I once drove it 110 miles per hour on the rte. 4 hill that runs through East Greenwich between the milk farm and the high school. Also, took it for “air” several times on upper Middle Road. Kept it until I was 17.

1984 Audi 4000s

Nice car for a teenager who bought with his own hard-earned money @ $3.25/hr. Stick shift, really expensive to run due to fuel injection issues…had it serviced by Hans Imports in North Kingstown. Kept this until I was 19.

Honda Spree

I got this for around $100. Fun to ride around on but probably looked silly. When it was about to run out of gas, it would speed up to ~40mph. Worked great until I tried to jump-start it but reversed the polarity and fried the electric system.

1979 Fiat Spyder

I managed to own or borrow this for a summer. Fun to have a convertible except for that one time when I floored it to ascend a hill on rte 1 and the gas pedal got stuck. It was a hairy situation as I approached a construction site at 80mph and couldn’t unstick the gas. Eventually, I shut off the ignition, but not early enough to escape the police officer that was pretty upset with my driving.

1986 Chevy C-10

Got this truck from a vehicle auction. It had been in a rollover. It had a lift kit on the body that was actually just 2 hockey pucks in-between the body and the frame. Rebuilt it, put in a bunch of aftermarket engine parts like a holley carburetor and edelbrock intake manifolds and headers with straight exhaust pipes.

1978 Dodge Truck

My dad bought this, but I have happy memories in it.

1978 Dodge Sportvan (Sweet Pickles)

A monster van with an extended cab. Fun to drive. Huge V-8 engine, passed everything except the gas station. Lost interest when a brake job cost thousands.

1981 Yamaha Midnight Special

Very powerful 1100cc engine. Fun to ride until I hit a Cadillac (his fault, not mine) and went over and through the handlebars. Badly broken leg, otherwise fine.

1984 Toyota Celica

Stick shift. Strong 4 cylinder engine, rear-wheel drive. Fun ride. Was $400 and had been rear-ended. I pulled the dent, filled the repair site with bondo and spray painted with silver Krylon paint. I sold it to Rone and it was stolen and used in a series of robberies. The police questioned me and Rone about them.

Stanza

What a piece of junk. I was driving it on the highway and the sunroof actually flew off. Worked fine, but then I got rear-ended in a hit and run accident. There was no question that the car was totalled.

Maxima

Nice car, but this was my last “old and cheap” car. I remember paying over $600/month in repairs and a commercial came on TV for a sweet Jeep Cherokee, brand new that would lease for less money monthly.